Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: Emergent Systems

  • Choosing to Focus

    FocusTo focus on any one thing is not to focus on everything else.

    For those of us trying to focus on several trajectories of effort, this can be a maddening dynamic. Concerns for all that crowds our peripheral vision overwhelm our attention.

    Much can be addressed with thoughtful scheduling. I not only choose on what I will focus, but when and for how long as well. I, in effect, give myself permission to let everything else go out of focus.

    Since I have reserved a place in the schedule for my other priorities, my current focus is not compromised with concerns about all that I cannot see. I am free to pour myself into the chosen task at hand.

    How do you stay focused in your busy life?

  • Listen In -> Tech Changes #4: Leaders in Database Hell

    When does information become the leader’s enemy?

    When the sifting and sorting of data overwhelms the timely decisions that need to result.

    In this week’s podcast interview with software developer, Jorge Rosas, we look at database hell. Have you ever wondered how so many leaders get trapped in the quicksand of endless information and reports grasping for the perfect decision?

    Sound decision-making need not be such a perilous and overwhelming process.

    Listen in.

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  • Trust the Employees or Trust the Controls?

    What would happen if you made additional tools and support available to your employees without dictating to them how or for what to use them?

    See what IBM experienced when it made various publishing and broadcasting tools available to its employees and trusted them with the uses. Read Eric Eggertson’s insights into how building a corporate “culture of trust and authenticity” will result in unanticipated creativity and buy-in.

    People are not an interchangeable commodity whose energies we exploit as long as we can get away with it. They are our primary asset, a source of infinite energy and creativity, IF we come to terms with the reality that core to their (our) motivation is the opportunity to contribute and make a difference.

    Try an experiment of your own and see what amazing new improvements, initiatives and/or innovations emerge from your team.

    On your side.

  • Listen In -> Tech Changes #2: Gadget Obsession or Early Adoption?

    Innovation is a double-edged sword. New gadgets can enhance effectiveness or undermine focus.

    In this week’s interview with software developer, Jorge Rosas, (a self-confessed innovation addict) we discuss the difference between the type of early adopter—whose play leads toward multiplied productivity—and those whose fascination with new gadgets results merely in distraction and loss of focus.

    The point is not to label ourselves so much as to help those of us fascinated with all things new to recognize when this passion is serving us well and when it is luring us off track.

    Listen in.

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  • Question of the Week

    How does your layout of offices and workspace contribute to or hinder collaboration in your department?

  • Redundant Approvals Killing You?

    My favorite crazy redundancy is the budget process that requires multiple approvals.

    Here’s how it works. You have your annual budget process and request funds to purchase new equipment during the year. The budget is approved. But then a few months later when you are ready to replace a piece of equipment, a second approval is required to make the actual purchase.

    In other words, the approval given at one point can be reversed at any other. Now, of course things change and an investment that seemed feasible at the beginning of the year may not be prudent eight months later. But most of the time, this second approval is unnecessary and debilitating for managers.

    We inadvertently create multiple opportunities to squash action. It only takes one “no” to stop an initiative, while it takes as many “yeses” as there are approval layers. Not good odds.

    Slim down and trust your managers with the timing and execution of your original approval. What do you think?

  • Podcast – Things We Can Do To Change our Workplace Culture


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